THE YEAR 2012!

 A Brain Fart  by Miss Fanny

So here we are in a new year.  It’s 2012 and all I’ve got to say is Hallelujah! When you get my age you‘re just glad when you wake up in the morning, but if you really think about it I guess that we’re all are living on borrowed time.

This is a leap year, which means that there’s one extra day added to the 365 that we normally have.  Unfortunately that gives folks an additional day to act a fool this year, and I’m sure that there are plenty of them out there who will prove me right.

Last year was pretty exciting for me.  I’m sure that you heard about my good fortune.  If you didn’t that means that you having been reading our story, especially the one about how my daughter-in-law, Hattie Collier, made headlines in Las Vegas—talk about somebody acting a fool!  Of course Hattie and her two best friends, Bea and Connie, are still running around here trying to be some kind of detectives.  It’s really pitiful, since they have no idea what they’re doing, and this year they have an extra day to prove how truly crazy they are.

If you ask me, half the world has gone crazy, and a new year probably won’t improve the situation, especially since it’s an election year too.  Lord have mercy!  I can’t wait until that’s over.  In the next couple of months we’re gonna hear more lies coming from the candidates than the law ought to allow.  I’m thinking about moving to a foreign country until the election is over, and I’ll mail in my absentee vote.

Speaking of foreign countries, one of my fondest wishes for this New Year is that I won’t have to hear one more word about that royal family in England.  Didn’t America defeat that country way back when?  You wouldn’t know it the way the media here slobbers all over every little thing that the “royals” do.  Why a bunch of foreign welfare recipients who live off of the taxes of their hard working countrymen get so much attention I can’t understand.  What they need to do is make some of those princes and princesses get some jobs and then they could support that queen mother.  That ought to help the European financial crisis I keep reading about.  It seems to me that the royal family is just some sort of show case and they are about as useless as the U.S. Congress, the Kardashians, and the other so-called reality shows, including the one about the fat folks.  I’m tired of reading and hearing about all of them.

In spite of my complaints, I’m realistic and I know that there’s little hope that my wish for the year will come true. Like I said earlier, I’m just glad that I’m here to see another 365…oops, 366 days, and I’ll enjoy every one of them that the good Lord grants me.  I hope that you do too.  

This is Fanny Collier wishing you Happy Musings!

WORDS OF WISDOM

This week it’s me, Hattie Collier, writing my thoughts about a couple of things I’ve learned over the years.  I’d be the first to admit that although I think of myself as intelligent, I’m not a scholar.  I do read the newspaper and listen to the news every day so as far I’m concerned, that and the fact that I have sixty something years of life experience under my belt, has given me a degree of knowledge that I have come to appreciate.   At times I’m surprised at what I’ve learned about life.  So, I decided to put a few of those things in categories and write down my thoughts about some of the wisdom I’ve acquired.

AMERICA

As someone who has lived through some of the worse times when it comes to race in this country, it can be said that things have gotten a lot better than in the past.  However, despite the 2008 election which resulted in an African American president, America is not “post racial.”  The word post racial only means that as usual people don’t want to talk about the country’s racial problem.  So when the continued silence blows up in our faces in the form of racial strife, we shouldn’t be surprised.

THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS

My first thought was that I’ve never seen such a bunch of idiots in my life.  Then after I thought about it more, I could see that they might not be as clueless as I thought.  After all, if you’re an upper middle class or wealthy American (because poor people don’t run for office on a national level) who can raise a lot of money for a campaign (and I do mean a lot!) and win, you can enter the U.S. Congress under the noble disguise of wanting to “serve the people” and end your Congressional wealthier than when you entered!  What a deal, and at our expense.

THE PRESIDENCY OF THE UNITED STATES

In America, if you’re at the bottom of your college class or a C student in an Ivy League college, you can be considered a serious contender for President or become President of the United States, as long as your family is wealthy or well connected.  Obviously, intelligence does not matter.  However, if you’re  from the working class and you’ve gone to school on scholarships, grants and loans and  graduate at the top of your college class, and worked most of your life to pay back student loans you’re called an “elitist” if you run for President of the United States.  It all seems kind of backward to me.

EDUCATION VS SPORTS

If it ever came to a battle between the two, it has become obvious to me that sports would be the winner.  Over the years I’ve noticed that football and basketball programs have become more important in most colleges and universities in the United States than academic programs.   I bet that most institutions of higher learning would willingly give up one of their educational departments rather than disband its football or basketball programs.  Any male dominated sport in this country that brings in a buck or two is much more important than educating the future generation of this country.  I know where I live the city will build a brand new sports stadium before they fund the public school system adequately—as a matter of fact it has built not one, but two stadiums, both proof  of  what is more important in our city.

There are a lot more things that I’ve learned over the years, but I’ll share those with you later.  Right now I’d better sign off because the more I think about all of the things I’ve mentioned, the madder I’m getting. I’ll leave you to do the musing.

POLITICAL POSSIBILITIES

Hello folks, it's Bea this week and I'm sitting here thinking about how difficult it is to be a political animal when politics has become so nasty. These days politicians are thought of as scum and the reputation has been earned honestly.  The American public couldn't rate the members of  the U.S. Congress any lower than it does presently.  Yet, I'm still interested in politics.  I still think that there is hope for America's politicians.

Before I retired I was an administrator in city government with a lot of political contacts and connections.  Over my many decades in dealing with politicians from the county level to the federal level, I can tell you that there were times  when hope looked dim for some of the nitwits.

Oh, I'm not saying that everyone who goes into politics is crooked. I still like to believe that most people who go into public service do so with the best intent.  It's just when some of them get there they get a taste of power, even at the local level, it becomes addictive and too often gets out of control.

I don't know the statics, but I wonder how many members of the U.S. Congress enter their positions on shaky financial ground but leave their terms of office wealthy.  How can that happen?  Well the "benefits" of being in public office can be very rewarding.  There are the contacts that can be made and the inside information that can be gathered that can prove to be very lucrative, and if you don't believe that some of them don't take advantage of those "benefits", then you've got a lot to learn.

What we need is term limits for these suckers! I don't mean the 2 to 6 year terms that they presently serve, but limiting those terms to running once or twice, like the President of the United States, and then it's over. That should be long enough to do something effective while in office, and if they don't then maybe the next one will.  No more sitting in Congress 30 or 40 years until you're so old that you're moldy and so are your ideas. Maybe what could emerge would be the birth of a new type of politician--one who really cares about the people that they are elected to serve.

Let's take some time to muse on that!    

TOLERATING FOOLS

Hi, this is Connie writing on the blog this week, and I’m here to tell you that I don’t suffer fools lightly and I’m just about fed up messing with them.  I know that I’m not perfect, but my goodness, there are some things that people do that are just plain stupid.  If I was to come up with a list of them it would be much too long, so I’ll name a few of my pet peeves to save time and space.  Mind you they’re not in any special order; I hate all of the stupidity equally.

 First on the list are the people who did not vote in the November 2010 election, and who are now complaining about the situation in the United States Congress and the Tea Party insanity.  When one of these fools steps to me to discuss either of these issues, I ask one question.  Did you vote in the mid-term election?  If the answer is no, the conversation is over. I walk away.  If they don’t like it, I really don’t care. As far as I’m concerned if you don’t vote you don’t have a voice, so don’t complain to me. I figure that when the mess hits the fan the nonvoters get what they deserve.  Is that taking a hard line?  Yes, it is.  Next!

 People who talk down to their elders need to be put in their place. When my mother was alive I can’t tell you how many times people talked around her.  They would be referring to her, but talking to me as if she wasn’t right in front of them. This was especially pervasive among medical personnel.  I could understand if she had been senile or suffered from Alzheimer disease, but although she was older, she was as sharp as a tack. Yet the expectation seemed to be that because of her age she was some sort of dimwit who couldn’t take care of her own business.   When you live in a country that has a population that is as frightened of aging as the people in these United States, you get that kind of thinking.  Respecting each person as being unique is not in the picture, and sometimes that lesson has to be taught the hard way.

When my mother was in her eighties, I drove her to the doctor for her appointment.  He was a man in his late thirties or early forties who she had been going to for about two years.  I had never gone into his office with her because she usually drove herself there, but this time I accompanied her and she asked me to go into his office with her. I guess that was his cue that Momma’s mind had deteriorated, so he asked me: “How is she today?  What can I do for her?” 

 I was so taken aback by his asking me that I was rendered speechless, but my mother knew exactly what to say.  She took that man’s chin between her fingers, just like you do with a child, so that she had his full attention.  She looked him straight in the eyes and told him calmly,   “Doctor, I don’t know what your problem is, but you have been talking down to me since I started coming to you.  I brought my daughter in here so that she could witness how you treat me, but I want you to know that until you correct your attitude, you can kiss my ass!”  With that we left his office never to return again.  Folks need to understand that every person who has aged does not have diminished capacity, and believe me the spirit can be fully intact.    

 The third fools that I can’t tolerate are those who text while driving. What in the hell?  Has all sanity left the planet?  Why would anybody write a note while they are driving two to three tons of steel?  Half of the people on the street can’t drive anyway, and now the rest of the bad drivers are texting and talking on their cell phones!  Will the insanity never stop?  When I see these idiots it makes me want to attach one of those scoops that they have on the front of bulldozers onto my car and start cleaning house. Every time I spot a texting while driving violation I’d scoop the car up, driver and passengers and toss them in the nearest ditch.  Good riddance.

 Oh, and there are some other fools who I need to address.   Those are the ones who call women who date younger men cougars.  As if we’re some animals.  Yes, I date a younger man and I don’t appreciate the depiction.  It sounds as though we’re going to spring on some unsuspecting younger man and gobble him up.  Give me a break!  It’s time to take into account the unlimited number of men who date and marry girls young enough to be their daughters.  As a matter of fact I’ve read that actor, Michael Douglas, is older than his wife, Catherine Zeta Jones’ parents. I’m sure that can be said for a whole lot of men in that situation.  So since I’m classified as a cougar, I’ll take it upon myself to classify the men who are with younger women.  I think that I’ll call them old dogs.

Anyway, the list of fools that I can’t tolerate is so long I guess I’d better stop here.  I’ve probably offended a lot of people by speaking my mind, but that’s life.  Just place me in the category of fools who don’t know when to shut up.

Until next time, muse on that.